Wilson's Plover

It has been a long time since Sharon and I headed out to Grandview Nature Park. So with shorebird migration picking up, we decided to make a trip out there. There is by far the best place near us for shorebirds and well as other unexpected birds. eBird has nearly 200 species reported from the 3 mile long stretch of beach along the Chesapeake Bay and Back River. The best birding is usually at the far end, known as Factory Point for an old fish processing plant that washed away many decades ago. But there is usually enough going on along the way that we tire out before getting to the end. This time we committed to getting to Factory Point quickly and birding on our way back. We also timed our trip to arrive at low tide to have the best mudflats. We pretty much stayed to plan we only a few diversions to look for seaside sparrows and check out the rocks of the old lighthouse (the only rocky part here). We found ruddy turnstones on the rocks but no sparrows. As we approached the end we found a couple of peep sandpipers (a genus of small and rather similar birds that can be challenging to distinguish) that we eventually identified as semipalmated sandpipers. We then reached the first set of mudflats. There were several sandbars with a range of gulls and terns and many more shorebirds, semipalmated plovers, semipalmated sandpipers, sanderlings, turnstones, least sandpipers, and an american oystercatcher. There was also a killdeer flying over. Just as we had arrived, another birder caught up with us. We chatted for a few minutes and then he headed to the other side of the point where he had seen whimbrels several days previous.

As we finished up with our scan and were preparing to move further down the point, the other birder, Ernie, came rushing back. "I think I have a Wilson's plover, you've got to see it." We packed up and followed him back. A Wilson's plover would be quite a find. They are rare visitors along the part of the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. He led us to a large expanse of mud and water saying, "it was the only bird out here." We all set up and started scanning but found nothing. Ernie was in a frenzy to get confirmation, even though he has good photos to back-up his identification. We continued scanning and eventually found a semipalmated plover. "No, that's not it It couldn't have left. It was just walking around here and had been here feeding for several minutes." Still we scanned without luck. Finally Ernie saw movement just over a small ridge in the mud. We moved further along the beach were the ridge, probably all of 6 inches, wouldn't block our view. And then we saw it. The plover is masterfully camouflaged and was hard to pick out when it didn't move. But sure enough. There it was.

Ernie was already late for an appointment so he packed up and headed home.We watched for a few more minutes and then started our way back. We had planned to spend time birding on the trip back but it was starting to get late, we were tiring, and there hadn't been much action along the beach. We did get some more nice shorebirds, including a black-bellied plover that was still in breeding plumage.

In the short trees along the dune we found a pair of common yellowthroats and a prairie warbler. We also followed a small group of shorebirds most of the way down beach. As we would approach they would flush further down never realizing we were still coming and would have to get past them at some point. In the end, it was a great day out at a great location that we don't get to enough.

Our First BioBlitz

On Friday July 31, my wife and I joined the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance's pilot BioBlitz at Bennett's Creek Park in Suffolk, VA. For those not in the know, a BioBlitz is an intense survey of wildlife, usually to make a catalog of animals, plants, insects, etc. living in a region.  This particular event was aimed at starting a field guide to wildlife in Suffolk to promote tourism. NRPA plans several more in the coming years at other parks and locations around town.

Pair of Spotted Sandpipers

Approximately 20 people showed up to participate. This event was also being used as an outreach event so instead of splitting us into teams focused on different biological orders, we were scheduled to spend an hour on birds, plant life, insects, and aquatic life. The bird expert they had scheduled ended up stuck in traffic (not that uncommon in Hampton Roads) so we started off without them. Sharon and I stepped up and helped out the back-up leader. We had done a little background research using eBird and the park had not been actively birded in the past. There were only a few checklists submitted and most had just a handful of birds. And the start of the walk was exceedingly slow. The highlight was a lone Great Egret across the creek. A few heard birds added to the list but not the groups enjoyment. Finally we came out of the the wooded area to a large field and found the birds. In addition to the typical mowed-lawn birds, like mockingbird and grackles, we had a few eastern bluebirds, barn swallows and a great crested flycatcher. We ended the walk at the boat dock were we flushed a spotted sandpiper who flew across the creek, circled around a bit, picked up a buddy, and the both landed on a downed tree on the far side of the creek. The most unexpected bird of the day and pleasantly good views.

Searching for Marsh Grasses

We then turned our attention to plants and trees. We had a professor and doctoral student leading the walk. We started with a really old cypress tree and some of the other plants and trees that surrounded it. The student guide, Peter, walked out into the marsh and collected several plant species to show covering the range of grass, sedge, and rush. This walk brought many more questions than the bird walk; perhaps due to the tie to gardening. We also found a couple of fragrant plants and passed those around. As that hour wound down we received news that the insect leader would not be attending. So the leaders decided to continue on with the botany talk but also the group would try and point out any insects they could identify. This was a little disappointing to Sharon and myself as that was the second most interested walk to us. Sharon did start us off well with spotting this red-spotted purple butterfly. We saw a few other things but most everyone's attention was on the plants. We discovered later that a small group of knowledgeable people had splintered off and identified a few dozen insects. We wish we had known and would have joined them.

Red-spotted Purple Butterfly

The final walk was aquatic life. A couple of people had a sieve net that they put in the water at the boat dock and scooped up some fish, crabs, shrimp, and oyster shells. There was really a pretty limited diversity here. Perhaps due to the warm temperatures in the creek as well as the limited survey area. As the water temperature rises, the oxygen level falls so many fish move to deeper waters to stay cool and have access to more oxygen.

Amongst the participants were three newspaper reports. The organizers must have done an excellent job promoting the event. The large turnout is testament to that as well.  Here are the two articles in the Virginian-Pilot and the Suffolk News-Herald. Something to add to our scrapbooks. There's been talk of the master naturalist chapter that I am part of doing a BioBlitz. If so, I will return to the topic again.

Frogs, Frogs, Everywhere there's Frogs

Our group. Photo by S. Burton

It's Friday night, cool and rainy. So what to do? Go searching for salamanders, of course. And maybe a frog or two. Twelve of us from the Peninsula Master Naturalists gathered to search for salamanders, frogs, and whatever else the night rains might bring out. We drove to a different part of Grafton Ponds than our last outing where we knew there would be some active ponds much closer to parking. It was twilight as we walked down the abandoned road; a quartet of Wood Ducks flew high overhead calling as they went. We passed one vernal pool where we could hear a lot of spring peepers calling. But they are hard to see and our goal was salamanders so we plunged deeper into the park while keeping in mind that we would pass by here on the way out. We finally reached our target pool and dove into the woods. Daylight was failing and the tree cover was thick so on came our lights. As soon as we arrived at the pool, we found our first southern leopard frog. The first of many, many, many. We placed the frog in a small baggie so we could all get a look at it and it could stay moist. But the frog was a bit peeved and started extruding a toxic substance so we released it back. While humans are not particularly susceptible to this toxin, any other frog placed in that baggie would quickly succumb.

First Southern Leopard Frog of the Night

The group was large enough that we often ended up breaking into two or three smaller groups to explore along the pool's edge. One group had moved ahead and found a bunch more frogs calling. As the rest of us moved to catch up, someone spotted this small mass of eggs on a rotting log.

None of us were sure what they were. Most salamanders and frogs would lay their eggs in the near-by pool so they would stay moist. So who would leave them out on a rotting log? Later we discovered the likely source of these eggs. They would be frogs eggs that never made it to the water. (possibly disturbing image next, you are warned)

This frog had succumbed to a predator and showed the same type of eggs as we had seen earlier. A bit of a gruesome find but also fascinating to see the eggs still with the frog. The carcass was drying out so it had been there for a while. We aren't sure what the predator was or why it would leave such a meal behind. Surely the eggs must be a good source of fat and protein. And all of that meat. That will remain a mystery.
Now back to the less gruesome. The lead group had found a small cove [do vernal pools have coves?] that had several dozen calling southern leopard frogs and masses of frogs eggs.With all of the human commotion the frogs had moved away from the edge out of camera range. But as Sharon scanned the water's surface out to 30-50 ft, the surface was dotted with tens of pairs of eyes. And those were only the ones looking in our general direction. It was fascinating to see the eye-shine from the frogs on the dark water.

Southern Leopard From Egg Mass

Same Type of Eggs but Under Different Lighting

Photo aside:  These night-time hikes have been my first real experience with animal photography in the dark and I'm still feeling my way around. Between using other people's headlamps, the on-camera flash, and, tonight for the first time, my wife's LED macro light, the lighting and color is quite variable. I would like to find a time to go out on my own and just experiment to see what works. I've seldom used a flash in the past, preferring natural light. But in the dark, everything looks the same in natural light: black. Many of my photos last time were blurred because I had exposed for the light from headlamps and used flash. So long exposures allowed for camera shake and ghostly second images to appear. Tonight I tried to either use the steady light or flash and not both. It didn't always work out but that is why I took so many photos.

We were successful in finding a handful of salamanders. Most of what we found, and all I saw, were Mabee's again. Mabee's is a state threatened species only occurring in the tidewater region but not too close to the coast. Grafton Ponds is one of its strongholds. An interesting find was the variability in size. This first one was about half the size of the later ones. We would find most, or maybe all, of them under the edge of a rotting log (I wasn't actually there for any of the salamander finds). So like the curious herpetologist we are, we rolled over every good looking log we could find. And then returned the log to their original place if we found nothing. If we did find a salamander, we would get a good look and then return the log and make sure the salamander was right next to it (you don't want to put the log back on top of the salamander and squish it).

Mabee's Salamander

By the time we reached the far side of the pool we were once again separated into two group. Here's the other half on the other side of a finger of the pool. I think that must be Fred with his double-barreled light source at the far right side. He is the only one you could pick out by his headlamp.

 

Along the way I found this cool-looking feather floating in the water and a wonderfully posed frog. The frog showed much more green and distinctive markings than any of the previous ones. It was just sitting on the side of a fallen tree. You can see the rounded, irregular spots on the back, the strong lines along the sides, and a hump in the middle of the back. I'm not sure what that hump is; perhaps it is where the leg muscles attach?

In this wonderful night, we had a great climatic find. A group of calling frogs even larger than the first (or at least what I saw of that group). And eggs everywhere. Play the movie to hear the frogs calling. It was too dark to see anything except the flash from someone's camera.

There were several pairs caught in amplexus. The male will grab onto the female's back and stick with her. This helps stimulate her to release her eggs which he then fertilizes. The southern leopard frog leaves a gelatinous egg mass that is in the shape of a rough ball. We touched a few, gently, and they are firmer than they look.

On our way out we again heard the calling spring peepers. They had been joined by upland chorus frogs. Both frogs are much smaller than the southern leopard frog and tend to call from vegetation making them much harder to find. But Kory did find this pair in a small ditch along-side the road. A great find that was a perfect way to finish off the night.

Thanks to Elisabeth, for organizing, and everyone else for making a great adventure. Hopefully in a few weeks we will be out again and find new salamanders and frogs.

Salamander Hunt

Last night there was an impromptu walk to visit the Grafton Ponds vernal pools in search of salamanders. With warm temperatures and rain in the forecast on the night with a nearly full moon, it was the perfect time for the salamanders to be on the move. Unfortunately, they weren't checking their emails. So five of us wandered around the area in the dark with our flashlights looking for the creatures that were probably tucked up at home with a nice book in front of the fireplace.
But while it wasn't the salamander-paloosa that we hoped for, we did have a few great sightings. The best, by far, was this Mabee's Salamander. In fact, it was the only salamander seen.

We saw a lot of aquatic insects. That surprised us. I, at least, was expecting that most of the insects would be hibernating or otherwise inactive. Especially since most of the pools were still ice-covered. We also saw a handful of frogs. Like this Southern Leopard Frog.

For our next trip I think several of us will be getting much brighter lights.

Oh my Snow!

It has been an unusually snowy February for Southeastern Virginia this year. On President's Day we received several inches of snow and sleet that shut things down for several days. Between the snow and the holiday there was less than 2 days of work. And it was unusually cold that week so the snow and ice stuck around. We don't get much snow and ice here so the cities only clear the main roads, not the residential streets. That is not normally a problem since the temperature usually rebounds and it all melts in 2-3 days. A week and a half later we still have some of that snow left. And then two days ago we received more snow. That one was just a couple of inches but it was really wet and arrived just in time for the evening commute snarling up traffic.  But it blanketed everything and was very pretty. And last night we got the big one (for here). I measured 5.5" - 9" around the deck on the back of the house. This was a nice, light, wet snow. So we are off from work again. We've been enjoying the birds coming to the feeders and went out for a photo walk and snowball fight. Here are some photos from the BIG SNOW of 2015.

Stay Warm,
  Bryan

Wee-will Willet

It has been a while since I wrote anything and even since I spent much time with my photographs. But two annual events, the Virginia Wildlife Photography Contest and the Suffolk Photography Show, with deadlines around this time have made me spend some time reviewing my shots. And while I'm not sure there are many stellar art images in there, there are definitely some interesting stories buried in those images. So I am going to go back and revisit some of those. Here's the first.

The Willet is one of my favorite shorebirds. Maybe because it combines  a set of rather distinct field marks and frequent sightings along the Mid-Atlantic coast. These characteristics led it to be one of the first shorebirds I could reliably identify and was a common sighting on those early trips to beaches. What they lack is showiness, like the well-dressed Oystercathers or the insistent chatter of Killdeers, they make up for with familiarity. They also seem to be at least accepting, if not happy, of sharing the beach with humans. I can count on Willets being seen not just in protected habitat but right in front of the resort hotels in the morning.
This past fall my wife and I made our annual trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with a group of friends. We rent a house right on the beach during the shoulder season. The houses are packed pretty close together and even in the shoulder season there are plenty of people walking the beach; right alongside the Willets. This particular one was right outside our house and hungry. During only about 8 minutes I saw it twice capture a little nugget of yumminess. Below you can see a sequence where the Willet grabs something from the sand, walks around with it and then eventually eats it (notice the lump in its throat in the last one).

 

And finally, this is one of my favorite Willet photos. It is from a couple of years ago, again at the Outer Banks, right at sunset.

Snow Bunting Memories

A few weeks ago a flock of Snow Buntings and a pair of Lapland Longspurs were seen near our house as part of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. But it is a 5 mile round trip to the end of the beach where they were seen and with the holidays and Christmas travel coming up, my wife and I didn't get a chance to go out and find them. But then just before New Years I received an email from my uncle that he was coming up to the area for his bird club's trip to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and wanted to meet up for dinner, and if the birds were still around, a trip out to see the Buntings and Longspurs. We were back in town and ready to make an attempt.

Pair of Snow Buntings

As Friday got closer the forecast temperature also continued to increase. The beach in on the Chesapeake Bay and it can get quite cold and windy out there (relative to the southern Virginia winter balminess). Dick drove up and we had lunch and then headed out in early afternoon. The winds and water were remarkably calm and the water level was very low, even for low tide, so there was plenty of beach to walk on.
On the way out we saw a good selection of bay ducks: Scoters, Buffleheads, Loons. At the end of the beach the city has recently built up the dunes with a handful of small jetties and lots of grasses. This is to help reduce flooding of the Back River and hopefully helps protect our house. The target birds had been seen flying around the grasses and rocks. At the first cove we found at least 25 Savannah Sparrows. The most I have ever seen (probably in total; definitely at once). As we are scoping them for good views we see the white and black flashes of the Snow Buntings over the dune. We had heard from a photographer that we passed on the way in that they keep flying around and landing every couple of minutes. We made out way around to the next cover and through a pass in the dunes to where there were several hundred shore birds on the flats. And then the flash of white and black again. This time landing close to us allowing for some nice views. As they moved around we could see that two were slightly smaller and darker. And when the flock landed, they often landed off to the side. But often hidden behind grasses from out vantage point. After some patience and luck we could clearly see they were they two Lapland Longspurs. The longspurs were a life-bird for my wife and I while the Snow Buntings were a lifer for my uncle.

Snow Bunting

Lapland Longspur

Our first Snow Bunting is a pretty funny story. Every fall a group of friends rent a house for a ling weekend down on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It is usually early November before we get down there and our stay often coincides with the Wings Over Water festival so Sharon and I try to get in a guided trip. Probably four or five years ago our trip was out to Alligator River NWR. One of the hoped-for birds was a Snow Bunting that had been seen there with a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds. We found a flock with a albino Blackbird but no Snow Bunting. The following year there was a coastal storm brewing as we headed down. We stayed in Rodanthe just south of Pea Island NWR. Our trip was to the south pond at Pea Island; an area usually closed to the public.
We arrived early Friday morning to the designated meeting spot, the maintenance shed at Pea Island, to howling winds and heavy waves. As we huddled in the leeward side of the building several people were on their phones. Finally the trip leader came over and said they were likely going to close the Oregon Inlet bridge due to flooding before our trip was scheduled to end. That would trap everyone on Pea Island. That wasn't a big deal for us since the rental was just a couple miles south and we didn't have to cross the bridge. But everyone else was staying north of the bridge. So they decided to move the trip to the north side of the inlet to Bodie Island. We obviously didn't want to be trapped up there so we stayed behind. The leader said it would be fine for us to walk around the south pond.
So off we headed into the cold November wind. I'm not sure we headed around the right direction and we weren't seeing many birds. So after an hour and a half or so we decided to call it quits and go get something warm to drink at the house.
But as we approached the road we could see waves topping over the dunes and the water collecting at the base of the driveway down from the parking lot. The waves were coming every several seconds and there was a steady stream of water running down the back side; our side. It was clear that we had only minutes, not even tens of minutes, before the road at the bottom of the driveway would be flooded and trap us.  So Sharon called out over the deafening wind "throw everything in the back seat and drive!" We would put stuff away once back at the house. So up we ran towards our car. As we could start seeing the parking lot we could see that it was good that we were among the late-comers as the side where everyone had parked was now under water and there were only a few dry spots.

Snow Buntings in Flight

Ours was among the high and dry. But then thirty feet short of the car Sharon yelled "STOP! What's that???" This small, mainly white and black sparrow-sized bird was on the edge of the driveway about 15 ft away. Up came the binoculars. A quick scan convinced us both that it could be nothing but a Snow Bunting. A life-bird for both of us. But the flood waits for no bird, no matter how new and interesting. We both called out "Snow Bunting. Yeah! Run!" I quickly unlocked the doors, I still had manual locks so it had to wait for me to actually get there and binoculars, scope, everything was tossed in. Seat belts could wait until we were on dry road. The water was already encroaching on the driveway below. And off we went skirting the water and off on dry land. At least for a few minutes. The water and wind was pushing the dune across the road as we reached the edge of Rodanthe and we had to wait for the "snow" plow to push aside some sand before we could pass. But we finally made it home safely with just a fleeting glance of a Snow Bunting.
The following year another big storm came through and finally tore an inlet through the island right where that shed and parking lot stood.